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'New Year's Eve' Trailer Celebrates Putting Together an Enormous Cast

Love Actually – a hilarious, endearing film about a bunch of people whose paths randomly criss-cross over the Christmas holiday – is one of the more popular romantic comedies of the past ten years. Which is why Hollywood basically copied that formula with the Garry Marshall-directed Valentine’s Day.

Now, as a result of Valentine’s Day’s success, we’re getting a – thematic followup? sequel? holiday reimagining? – in the form of New Year’s Eve, also directed by Garry Marshall, and today we have the trailer starring every living Hollywood actor ever.

The only actors returning from Valentine’s Day are Kutcher and Biel but they're not playing the same characters - which would place this film squarely in the “thematic followup” category.

One of the reasons Valentine’s Day did so well is it was released on, uh, Valentine’s Day, thus a massive percentage of this country’s couples bought tickets. It’s unclear if a film about New Year’s Eve – a somewhat romantic holiday, sure, but a scientifically less romantic holiday than Valentine’s Day – will have the same effect on moviegoers, especially coming out well before Christmas.

Jennifer Garner and Ashton Kutcher in Valentine's Day

As far as the quality of the film – it looks almost exactly like Valentine’s Day, only with more actors in it. Is it even possible to cram twenty-five stories into a two-hour movie? More to the point, is it even possible to do justice to however many stories they’re cramming into a two-hour movie? Love Actually pretty much maxed out the acceptable number of storylines and characters before the film would buckle under the weight.

In New Year’s Eve, it seems more likely that we’ll be getting a bunch of cutesy moments disguised as fully-told stories, which might result in a hefty box-office take, but is unlikely to result in an excellent time at the theaters. Then again, Garry Marshall has made some quality films - so anything’s possible.